Home Alone, Chocolate Smiles and Bloody Ears

This is old news, but I decided to post about it anyway. Last weekend Jeremy went camping with is brothers. Aside from the trip I took to Thunder Bay in 2006, I think I can count on one hand the number of times Jeremy and I have been away from each other overnight. (maybe one hand and a thumb, but not many) I know some of you have husbands that go out of town a lot for work. I've decided that I am very glad that Jeremy doesn't have to do that! It was a good weekend, but being a single parent is not an easy job.

I decided that I would concentrate on just spending time with the boys. I maintained the house and did some laundry, but nothing more than necessary. I watched a Barney DVD with Isaiah. That was an experience. I also played outside with Isaiah for awhile. That is something I should do a lot more of. We had a great time. I was struck at one point at how few of times Isaiah and I really laugh during our days. We laugh at Nathan and Nathan and Isaiah laugh at each other, but not often do Isaiah and I share a laugh. It was a very sobering thought for me. I feel like right now all I do is correct or respond to whining. I'm not sure of the exact wording, but I was reminded of the verse in Proverbs that talks about a merry heart being like good medicine. I wonder how much less crying and stubbornness would happen if Mommy had a smile on her face all day (or most of it -I am human!) Just a thought. How do you make your kids laugh? I remember my dad telling me a story of one of his aunts. Her son opened a can of chocolate syrup using an electric can opener, but forgot to hold onto the can. Chocolate syrup spilled all over the floor. My dad told me his aunt sat down and laughed!! I've never forgotten that story.

I'm way off track. Back to the weekend. Saturday morning I did decide to do something productive so I cut Isaiah's hair. I was almost finished, just trimming around his ears with a scissors and I chopped a piece off the top of his ear!!! I felt horrible! He has a nasty scab now. He keeps telling me his ear is feeling better. :( Nice reminder to me that I made it hurt.

I was going to go into more details, but we really didn't do a lot more the rest of the weekend. I wanted to rent a movie, but redbox didn't have what I wanted. I really missed Jeremy in the evenings. Especially when it was time to put the boys to bed, and then once they were in bed. Suddenly I had free time, but no one to share it with. Jeremy had a great time with his brothers. In case you're wondering, they played 54 holes of disk golf! The boys and I also had a good weekend, but we were all happy to be back together again.

P.S. We leave tomorrow evening for Thunder Bay. We will be driving through the night. We'd appreciate your prayers! I'll try to update some while we're there. I am looking forward to some Canadian summer weather!

Grateful Child

This evening at supper Jeremy asked Isaiah to pray.


Isaiah:
Dear Jesus,
Thank you for the food.
Thank you for Pappy,
Thank you for Pappy's food,
Thank you for Grandma's Flo's food
Thank you for disks
Thank you for carrots (while peaking at the table)
Thank you for dip
Thank you for forks and spoons
Thank you for knives and forks and spoons
Thank you for that dip
Thank you for tennis balls
Thank you for Daddy's tennis balls
Thank you for my tennis balls
Thank you for my bouncy balls
Thank you for water
Thank you for juice
Mommy: "in Jesus Name..."
Isaiah: Thank you for juice
Thank you for water
Daddy: "In Jesus Name..
Isaiah: "In Jesus name, Amen!"

Could it be?

I hesitate to post this, but I think, I can say that Isaiah is pretty much potty trained. He has worn one pair of underwear for the last three days. Stop. Rewind. Not the SAME pair. One pair per day instead of 3 or 4. He's still waking up wet in the morning, but the first thing out of his mouth in the morning is usually "Go Potty!!". Two weeks ago Jeremy and I woke up on a Monday morning and talked seriously about giving up on potty training for at least a little longer. Maybe it was just Monday morning blues, but we were getting sick of cleaning up "stuff". We had already invested so much time in it that I decided to keep going a little longer. For awhile he would go if we reminded him and took him, but he if forgot, everyone was sorry. I guess something clicked in the last few days because he has started to tell us now. I hope it lasts!

10 Months

Nathan was 10 months old on Monday. He is growing up so quickly. He has traded in his army crawl for the real deal on all fours, and can he move! He's also pulling himself up to anything that will hold still. The other day I caught him trying to climb the steps. He is very interested in anything that Isaiah has or is doing. As you can imagine, Isaiah usually does not appreciate this. Isaiah screams and Nathan growls. Nathan growls anytime he wants something. I hear it the most when he's hungry and I'm taking too long to get the food into his mouth or when Isaiah takes something from him. Other fun facts:

• He loves to laugh
• He loves to chase Isaiah, but never catches him because Isaiah is usually running or on his bike while Nathan is crawling.
• He now has two stuffed moose because he sucked on the antlers of the first one so much that we decided to buy a second one so the first could be socked in oxy clean.
• He doesn't seem to be "thinning out" yet
• Claps his hands
• Drinks from a sippy cup if I hold it for him
• Has 7 teeth and I think he's working on the 8th
• Takes afternoon naps upstairs in the pack 'n play because he and Isaiah goof off so much in their room that they never fall asleep.
• Sleeps in the same room as Isaiah at night (and morning naps). Has great fun standing at the edge of his crib laughing at Isaiah. Bedtime is hard at times. See previous point.
• Generally is a very happy baby, but is showing signs that there is a strong will in there somewhere.

1st Hair Cut

I finally decided to cut Nathan's hair last week. This before picture doesn't show very well how much hair he has on top of his head, but believe me, there was a lot.

Before...

After...

Humidity and Sweet Potatoes

We are in the middle of the first hot and humid spell of weather for the summer. To say I dislike it would be way to mild of a word to describe my true feelings. Honestly, it makes me grumpy. I know I shouldn't complain because we've had a very cool spring, but unfortunately my body doesn't store "cool spring" to pull out when it gets hot. I don't mind the heat, it's the humidity that is hard to handle.

Now that I have that off my mind I'll move to more uplifting things. Friday night we took the boys for ice cream. (Nathan of course only had Cheerios, but he was happy) Then we went in search of a little pool for them. Everyone else must have had the same idea because they were out of them at Wally World. Saturday we found one at Kmart. Both boys love it. As you can see from Nathan's dry hair, this was one of the first pictures I took. Poor Nathan. Things like getting water dumped on his head seem to happen to him alot lately. Like I said Isaiah loved it. I heard him get up this morning and run to the door. It was locked of course. Jeremy and I were still in bed. Next think I knew there was a little face about two inches from mine saying "swimming pool?" Hopefully this excitement lasts all summer.
Sweet potatoes are one of the easiest things to feed a baby. I buy a bunch of them, stick them in the crock pot for a few hours and they're done. Then all I have to do is peel them and blend them up and we have baby food. Nathan is eating a lot of other foods now, but I still like to have sweet potatoes around to mix in with whatever. All of that to say I have a hard time looking at these things. Don't they look odd? Kind of reminds me of the groundhog, George, that used to live under our shed. Or maybe some kind of rat. I usually cut off the nose part first so I don't have to look at it while I peel it.
And lastly, does anyone recognize this cupboard?

Do I look that bad?

I was home all day today with the boys so I spent most of the day in shorts and a t-shirt. Because I was teaching piano, and because I like to look somewhat alright for my husband when he gets home from work, I changed clothes late afternoon. When I walked out of our bedroom Isaiah looked at me and said "You going bye-bye Mommy?" :( And we think he isn't paying attention!